Mattie McGrath urges review of Connecting Ireland M25 plan

Les Cancola, Tanaiste, I want to talk to you about this document connecting Ireland which aims to connect Cork, Limerick, Waterford and Galway an alternative from the M20 and M25 motorways which Minister Ryan fees will cost a fortune on two expenses. The government's vision for the Ireland 2040 achieves connectivity, it bans regional development and the regions and cities are very important. Cork, Limerick and Waterford cities are instrumental in this new vision, we are told. The cities need to be connected to achieve economic growth and to access ports and indeed airports. Tipperary County Council, Waterford City and County Council, Kilkenny County Council have made submissions to the upgrading of the N24 motorway standards, part of the Ireland 2040 vision. Indeed, submissions made by Tipperary County Council in the midterm review of capital projects and also the voluntary group, Limerick Alliance group made submissions also. Very important that these people can be listening to. We can get to care from Limerick and on to Corker Dublin, you know with 9 to 12 minutes maximum of a time extra delay. We are talking about investments of £3.8 billion to do that development rather than £10.3 billion capital expenditure to do the N25 and the N20 motorways. Not to mention the damage and the impact on the environment and everything else. As I said, it brings a negligible travel time difference, I have just said that. Transport 2040 goals met in a fraction of the time. A greater return for investment on the EM8 which is currently totally underused, probably 50% capacity pre-COVID. Creates regional access to motorway infrastructure plus less cars on the M20 and the N25. Faster port access is vital with Brexit and issues. Connecting the ports of Golby actually fines and indeed onto Ross Lear and Waterford, all connectivity which is vital for Brexit. So I am asking you Taoiseach, this document is lovely and I am asking you to have a look and evaluate, independent evaluation of the proposal to go from Limerick to Cork, the M25. Because we can do it for a fraction of the cost. Care will be the centre, it is the centre of the cost of Munster Symphony and almost Ireland. And we are going to have a digital and a hub, a hub there for big heavy industries and indeed for all kinds of issues in the town of Care. Adjacent to two motorways then, the M8 and indeed the M24. I am asking you to please, we don't want another children's hospital that started out at 600 million and is now 3 billion almost and not built and huge delays years after, almost half a decade later than delivery. This can't be delivered. The people and energy and enthusiasm and the expertise are out there. They are not all confined to the TII and the department and they have good ideas that should be listened to. Connect Limerick, as I said, onto Cair and onto Bypass Clown, Mel Carrick and Shore and onto Waterford and Piltown in County Kenny, which is a notorious spot and several fatalities. Please go back and re-examine before it is too late and try and develop this link. And then we will have connectivity with Park, Limerick and Waterford and indeed Galway, which is very important. Thanks very much Deputy for raising this issue. And as you know the National Development Plan and Project Ireland 2040 is now currently under review. We expect to be in a position to publish a revised and updated National Development Plan in the summer, most likely in June or July. And that will project out to 2030 in terms of the major infrastructure projects that we intend to progress during that period. It's been a long standing objective of successive governments to connect all of our cities by motorway or by high quality road. We've made enormous progress in that regard in the last couple of decades. And one thing, though, I think we do need to bear in mind is that we need to look particularly taking account of the need to take climate action. We need to look at this in the round now and connecting cities can be done in two ways by rail and by road. So we need to weigh up options in terms of closer connections and faster connections by rail as well as by road and ideally both. And we also need to bear in mind that when we progress these projects, it's not just about connecting the cities. It's also about bypassing the towns along the way. And if I understood you correctly, you were suggesting that the link should be from Care to Limerick. And that could double, if you like, as the link from Cork to Limerick. And that is true. But that does nothing for Budavant. It does nothing for Charleville. Towns that are heavily congested and towns that need to be bypassed and need to be released, leave of that traffic. And also there's the issue then of Foynes and Adair and Kilmalick, which are linked into road projects between Cork and Limerick and the Adair bypass and Foynes as well. So all of this has to be looked at in the round as we seek to review the national development plan. And we have a very clear commitment in the programme for government that new investment in transport will be split two to one in favour of public transport. So two thirds of the money going into public transport, one third of the money going into new road developments. But what is absolutely certain is there won't be enough money to do all of the projects that we would like, whether it's all the public transport projects in the cities or all the road projects in cities and towns and counties around Ireland. So we will need to make some choices. Dr McGrath. And I don't have any issue with those towns you mentioned in Cork and Limerick, they need bypasses. But Minister Ryan is in favour of smaller ring roads or smaller bypasses. It's not a huge motorway. And you have to look at the funding, it's staggering. 3.8 billion versus 10.3 billion. 3.8 billion to come from Cork, come from Limerick to Cair onto Waterford and connectivity back to Cork or Dublin. That's against, you know, the 10.3 billion to do the Cork, Limerick and indeed Cork, Waterford. It's a no-brainer. And the impact on the environment, the impact on everything. Of course rail, we have a reasonable rail service that needs to be upgraded. But certainly this has to be re-examined in this timely review because you are going to get the connectivity to those cities. You're going to have the people in those towns that you mentioned there and all the other towns with less and less traffic because all the heavy trucks will be gone. And lastly, most importantly of all, a temporary town is completely jammed with lorries. We have to get the trucks because there's extra traffic now because of issues with Brexit and different ports that are going to Ross Lair instead of Dublin. And get the lorries out of those towns so people can live and breathe and have a nice town like Clonacilty. We saw it's both on TV and a programme recently. Thank you, Deputy. So we have a simple ring road and proper planning. And listen to your people that have different ideas. Thank you, Deputy. Good ideas and they're costed as well. Thanks, Deputy. Deputy, we will do that and we will listen to ideas and we'll examine the different proposals that people have to connect our cities better and to bypass our towns. And I absolutely agree with you. Tipperary town needs to be bypassed. It's a town that's really, really suffering, really struggling and bears the weight of a lot of freight traffic. And I remember when I was Minister for Transport working with the Minister of State at the time, Deputy Kelly was here beside us, working very hard to save those rail lines that you mentioned in Munster and Tipperary and also put forward a proposal to have a one-way system, sort of a one-way bypass through the town, which councillors decided against and it was their prerogative to decide against it. But we now need to find a new solution for that town to make sure that it does get bypassed and that in itself will help regenerate the town, which is desperately needed.